Four more people with Covid-19 have died, 419 new cases

"The data strongly suggests that a small, recent increase in the level of social contacts has led to the increase in reproduction number we see now."

The Department of Health has been informed of four further deaths related to Covid-19. It has also been notified of 429 new cases of the virus. 173 of the cases are in Dublin, 44 in Cork, 26 in Donegal, 22 in Louth, 21 in Kildare while the remaining 143 cases are spread across 20 counties. As of 2pm today 290 Covid-19 patients are hospitalised, of which 33 are in ICU. There have been 15 additional hospitalisations in the past 24 hours. Dr. Tony Holohan, Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: “In our objective to use a six-week period to drive down Covid-19 infection in the community, our progress has stalled in the last week. “We now have two weeks to get back on track. Drive down the disease by limiting the number of daily contacts you have. Work from home, stay at home and follow public health advice to get us to a reproduction number below 0.5 by 1 December.” Dr. Ronan Glynn, Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Department of Health, said: We have made significant progress in Ireland over recent weeks, but the disease and its risks have not changed. "Please continue in your efforts to follow public health advice, limit the transmission of Covid-19 in Ireland and protect those who are most vulnerable in our families and across our communities.”

Professor Philip Nolan, Chair of the NPHET Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, said: “For three weeks we saw case numbers declining at a rate of 5 - 7% per day and a reproduction number as low as 0.6.

"We are aware that case numbers have now stopped declining and as a consequence the reproduction number has increased to an estimated 0.7- 0.9.

"The data strongly suggests that a small, recent increase in the level of social contacts has led to the increase in reproduction number we see now. A small additional effort to reduce our contacts will make a big difference to reduce disease incidence before 1 December.